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Raising money from individuals is getting harder. It’s harder to find new donors, it’s more expensive to reach them and, crucially, we’re not keeping them long enough.

At the heart of good fundraising is an understanding of our donors, the ability to create asks that move and inspire them and programmes that bring inspire new and existing donors to support our work cost-effectively.

I’ve learnt a lot about fundraising and donors over the years.

Happy donors give more and for longer. Our job is to make donors feel good about what they are achieving through us so that they will give again and again.

I know that it’s important that we can keep finding new supporters for our charities, but I know that donor loyalty (defined as “A strong feeling of support or allegiance”) is the most important KPI that we should target. Retention is our biggest challenge.

I have seen over and over again that donors who are engaged in other ways by a charity (through campaigning, volunteering, events or surveys) will give more and for longer. We MUST integrate!

We can all have a brilliant ideas, but there is no substitute for robust testing when it comes to your fundraising. No matter how good your insight is or how experienced you are, donors will always surprise you.

We have some amazing new opportunities to engage our donors through new channels and social media but when it comes to asking for money traditional channels still work.

If you agree with what I say here and you have a challenge around recruiting, retaining or developing your donors then I’d love to hear from you. You can call me on 07929 208 848 or use my contact me page.

And if you don’t agree with me… Well, I’d still love to hear from you – I love a good debate!